We will be chanting the sutra opening verse on the inside of the white hearts. as profound and wondrous are not, it is rarely met with even a hundred thousand million kalpas. Good morning, everyone. I want to continue a couple different threads from things I've talked about the past month.

[01:07]

First, we've been talking some about the Bodhisattva figures as aspects of our practice and aspects of our satsang. I spoke of last month of Manjushri, the Bodhisattva of Insider Wisdom, who's on our altar in front of the Buddha, who represents insight, the teaching of emptiness or wisdom or the ultimate truth, the ultimate side, the side of the awareness that we start to glimpse or sometimes see very suddenly in Zazen of ultimate reality, of our deep interconnectedness to all things. But then the other side of that is the expression of that, and there are many different forms of that. I talked about Samantabhadra, the bodhisattva who takes on projects in the world and systematically responds to the systems of suffering in the world.

[02:13]

Today I want to talk about the bodhisattva of compassion, Kanon or Kanzeon, or Avalokiteshvara, who responds to or hears the suffering of the world. So I want to talk about her, and I've talked about her before, but these bodhisattvas all represent aspects of our own practice. But I want to talk about her, this bodhisattva of compassion, in terms of what we started to talk about last weekend, the issues and realities in the world around us of climate damage. and what has been happening in Ferguson and the issues of racism in our culture. So this is complicated, so we'll see what we can get to. But I thought we had good discussions last weekend, and I didn't want to drop that completely.

[03:14]

So I think there's a relationship. So I'm going to shift back and forth, just to say a little bit about climate. I talked last week. And actually, you can find it on the Facebook page of our website, from our website now, this article by Bhikhu Bodhi. A Theravada monk from New Jersey is probably the primary translator of the early Buddhist suttas from Pali, who also is a very fine speaker to the issues of our culture and the world and the difficulties in our world. And he has called for people to go to the Climate March in New York City on September 21st.

[04:16]

We're going to be having an out-of-town speaker here this weekend, that weekend, so many of us will be here. But if any of you can go, I would also encourage you. Mikubari talked about, you know, and we've talked here about climate damage, and part of what's required clearly is new alternative sustainable energy systems. How we get to there from here is, of course, very complicated. Any particular solution has unintended consequences. This is not an easy thing to do, and especially given you know, the political realities, the economic realities, the vested interests of corporations who control so much of our media and politics. Nevertheless, the situation is urgent in the near future and certainly in the long-term future. But Bhikkhu Bodhi's article is really interesting because he talks about it in terms of something that is very close to our practice, that

[05:20]

that what we really need as much as or more than or underlying the changes that we need to make in our systems of organization in the world is a change in the current social paradigm, he says, rooted in profit maximization. a new paradigm that gives priority to preserving the integrity of human beings and the natural world. So basically, this is something that we start to see in our zazen, that we are connected to everything in the world, that we are connected to each other, that our own individual difficulties, come up in our Zazen that are also part of, very much part of what we need to work on in our practice of our own particular patterns of grasping and anger and confusion and fear and so forth, the poisons of greed, hate and delusion also are reflections of and reflected in the situation in the world.

[06:41]

And we each need to work on that in within the various complex systems going on on your own cushion or chair right now, but also in the world, that there is suffering of many beings in our world due to, and increasingly there will be due to, You know, the droughts and fires in California, climate events, you know, all over the world. Wars are happening because of climate refugees and so forth. And this is going to happen more and more and more. And yet, we still are at a place where we can make a difference in terms of how bad this gets. So that's one topic. And then, of course, that karma is also the situation. of various minorities, but certainly of African-Americans and what has been happening and what happened recently in Ferguson and the young black man who was gunned down in the streets without a weapon by the policemen in Ferguson.

[07:58]

You know, that's not an isolated example. And then the massive military weaponry used in response to peaceful, non-violent demonstrations, for the most part. Occasional acting out going on late at night is used as an excuse for this. But anyway, that's happening in many cities in our country. This goes to an underlying situation that we all are part of. that racism is very, very deep in all of us and in our society. This karmic legacy of slavery and racism is very much part of how we are in this society. And as I said last week, I feel

[08:59]

So sad for young black men today who risk this when they just go out walking in the streets, whether or not they have any, you know... unwholesome intentions, and for the mothers of young black men who must be afraid every time their sons go out in the street. And, you know, what to do about it? And there's not easy answers to this. So this also goes back to our Zaza. How do we sit? And as we consider our own, you know, whatever came up in this period of Zazen, of your own confusion or whatever's been going on this week, or, you know, maybe you were just sitting and enjoying the sound of the air conditioning. you're breathing and I encourage that to enjoy just feeling present and how that is and we can enjoy that and that's important to just settle and calm.

[10:13]

But also, there's the Bodhisattva of Compassion. Avalokiteshvara, Guanyin in China, Chenrezig in Tibet, Kanon or Kanzeon we chant to in Japanese. And again, she's a balance to the insight into the ultimate truth of Manjushri. And her name means just to listen to sounds or to listen to, sometimes it's interpreted, to listen to the cries of the world. So just to listen to the suffering of the world is compassion in Buddhism. part of, and actually there's a meditation instruction that's associated with this Bodhisattva that is just about listening. So I sometimes encourage, when I do Zazen instruction, either to follow or to count breaths, to pay attention to inhale or exhale, or else to listen, to focus on sounds as a way of settling.

[11:31]

But also, hearing sounds is an expression of the basic insight into emptiness. And to hear the suffering of the world is our practice. So, listening to, being willing to hear the scientific realities about what's happening to our climate. It's not easy. It's not just that the that the oil corporations are spending billions of dollars in disinformation to encourage people to deny the reality of that. It's that all of us have some part of us that doesn't want to bother with this, doesn't want to hear this. It's difficult. We all have stuff to do in our lives, so we don't want to hear about it. And yet, There are many beings, not just polar bears, but many beings. There's a mass extinction going on of species. And I don't think that human beings are going to go extinct, but if we don't act, that might happen.

[12:42]

This is why the Secretary General of the United Nations has called all the world's leaders to come September 21st to the UN to actually start to take measures. There have been all these conferences and they've basically kicked the can down the road. Let them worry about it in 50 years. Let our grandchildren, our great-grandchildren worry about it. It may be too late then. So, it's not easy. to be open to our own suffering, the suffering of the people around us, the suffering of our world. You know, when we have difficulty with someone in our world, a family member or a co-worker, You know, we can just get into finding fault or blaming them or thinking about what a jerk they are or, you know, we can use all kinds of other names. But, you know, there's some suffering there. There's some pain. There's some fear. There's some sadness.

[13:45]

that is helping that other person act in a way that you find unhelpful or harmful or unpleasing or evil. whatever. So this Bodhisattva of Compassion, these Bodhisattvas exist, you know, we have images of the Bodhisattva of Compassion on our side walls and in other places in the temple, and Tara who sits out front by this door is a female version of this Bodhisattva, who in China is almost always female, Guan Yin. But This Bodhisattva represents compassion in various ways. A very complex figure. So I wrote about these different Bodhisattva figures in this Spaces of Compassion book as a way of looking at the range of our practice and of this Bodhisattva Mahayana tradition.

[14:51]

And to see these different aspects of the different schools and sutras, They all have different parts in those, but also they're parts of our practice. We each have, in our own practice and in our aspiration towards practice, we each emphasize certain parts, certain aspects of this. This caring about our lives and the world, that is what brought you here in the first place, what brought you to consider spiritual practice, what brought you to come here on a lovely Sunday morning. So this particular Bodhisattva, Kanon, again, her name is just to listen to the sounds of the world and to listen to the suffering of the world. So just to be heard can be very wonderful.

[16:01]

So we have quite a few therapists, psychologists in our sangha, and just empathetic listening, just to actually listen to someone. Or if you've ever actually felt heard, if you felt like someone actually listened to you, actually saw you, actually regarded you, there's something about that that is healing. And I think there are many young people upset about climate who want the governmental and corporate leaders to just hear what's going on. And I think there are many African-American people who want white people to hear what they have to go through every day. And there are many Hispanic people and the people coming across the border who want people to hear what's going on and how they are trying to escape from sometimes really torturous situations in countries in Latin America.

[17:10]

And partly that's something that, you know, in terms of the geopolitics that has been created by American policies and now America, you know, is building walls to keep them out or deporting people and breaking up families and so forth. And this goes on and on and on all over the world. And we set up divisions and separations and build walls. And we do it in our own lives. We build walls to keep people out so we don't have to hear them. You know, the Palestinians, the Israelis don't want to hear the Palestinians suffering and vice versa. It's difficult. But yet, the Bodhisattva of Compassion very sweetly represents this, just listening to the suffering of the world. And this takes quite a range of different approaches. So the Bodhisattva of Compassion appears in many, many, many different forms.

[18:12]

There's six or seven major forms, and there's another system of 33 different forms. Some of them have many arms. There's this famous A thousand-armed bodhisattva of compassion. Each hand has an eye in it to see from different perspectives. Sometimes it has 11 heads. So when you go out, if you look closely at this steel figure here, it's got 11 heads on it, each to look at from a different perspective, because different beings need to be seen from different perspectives. And each of us at different times. There are many beings. You're pushing your chair right now. How do we see ourselves and our different aspects? And how do we forgive ourselves for being human and forgive ourselves for our own sadness and grasping and confusion and anger and frustration? And appreciate. Walden said, I'm vast and contain multitudes.

[19:14]

Well, maybe we all are complex. So compassion in Buddhism means just to listen to all of that, to hear that suffering. But it's not enough to just, you know, to just listen, although that awareness itself is important. Just to be aware of what's actually happening to our climate is important. But then there is, well, how do we respond? And this bodhisattva of compassion, Kamsayana, also has some something to teach us about that. So what do we do about, you know, the hatred in our own country? And probably some of you know some of those people who think, oh, it's this policeman who shot this unarmed young black man.

[20:16]

who was preparing to go to college. Anyway, but for some people he's a hero. This is sad. This level of division and hatred. What do we do about that? It doesn't help to hate the people who hate. That doesn't help. How do we hear the suffering on all sides? So this bodhisattva of compassion has all these different forms because in addition to listening, this bodhisattva represents one of the main practices of bodhisattvas is called skillful means. This is kind of complicated. But this is very relevant also to the issues of how do we respond to

[21:17]

our own suffering and the suffering of those around us and the suffering in our society and how are we going to, what are we going to do to stop, to actually respond to all the carbon dioxide that's increasing in Africa? Bias here. So skillful means Part of Skillful Maze is to look from different perspectives, to consider many possibilities, but also to respond. And it's not like there's some... Well, different bodhisattvas represent different kinds of responses, different kinds of ways. So I talked about Samantabhadra having kind of systemic programs of response over a long time. This Bodhisattva Kamsayana is more about this immediate response.

[22:23]

So in all the different hands, she's represented as having different tools, different implements. So again, these images of these Bodhisattvas represent aspects of some teaching that we can see as useful. So sometimes they carry a rope or a wish-fulfilling jewel just to give people whatever they want, or a vase containing water bestowing love and virtue, or sometimes nectar granting immortality, or a willow branch to drive away sickness.

[23:29]

And modern scientists have discovered that willow is a substance like asthma. Sometimes they carry an axe to give protection against oppressive authorities, or a mirror signifying insight or wisdom or a rosary to call upon Buddhas to give support, sometimes a conch to summon heavenly and beneficent spirits, or a palatial pavilion, which signifies abiding in the dwellings of Buddhas throughout lifetimes, or various colored lotuses, white lotuses for attainments of merit, blue lotuses for rebirth in the pure land, red lotuses are rebirth in heavenly realms. Anyway, these are the various traditional attributes that the bodhisattva, that this bodhisattva has in her hands. Hooks, monk staffs, sutra books, vajras, vajra bells, clubs, daggers, things we usually think of as weapons, clouds, bowls of fruit or jewels, bows and arrows, sun and moon disks.

[24:31]

And some of these, some of the sutras have, you know, whole dharanis are dedicated to each of these various implements. in modern images of this bodhisattva have modern thing there's a there's a temple in western Kyoto where there's bodhisattvas holding video cameras and guitars and cell phones. Anyway, so the point is that this bodhisattva responds using whatever should hand. There's a story actually from our lineage of two monks, and one asks the other, what does the Bodhisattva do with all of those hands and eyes? And the other one says, it's like reaching back for your pillow in the middle of the night.

[25:35]

So there are various styles of response, and there's Samantabhadra who responds with systems of I like the response in Ferguson of a long-term project of civil disobedience, non-violent civil disobedience. But this approach of the bodhisattva of compassion, of kanon, is just this immediate response, just reaching for whatever is at hand, whatever you have at hand. whatever ability or implement you have at hand, and using that to reach out in response to the suffering right in front of you. More like Mother Teresa just responding to the poorest of the poorest, you know, the sickness right in front of her in India. Anyway, there are various ways to respond. So how do we respond? This approach of this Bodhisattva is just to do what's right in front of us.

[26:45]

So, you know, part of, you know, one of the ways in which we can see this image of the many hands is Sangha, that each person in this room has various abilities, various talents, various interests, And so this is like the body, the sangha is like the body of Alokiteshvara. We each respond with what we can. But the first point is just to listen. So we sit with our eyes open in this tradition. And that's, you know, partly it's just not to fall asleep while we sit, because, you know, we're sitting here, I don't carry around a stick and hit people if you're starting to fall asleep, or if you change your leg position. It's okay to just be present as you are. But also we pay attention, and we sit with our eyes open, like we sit with our ears open, just to be aware of what's going on in front of us.

[27:51]

not necessarily to focus on anything, but when some suffering comes up, when you remember some sadness from something that's happened this week, to listen to that. And as we get up and go into the world around us and in our life, to be open to face the suffering around us. And then, how do we respond? Well, there are various different styles of response. And there's different bodhisattvas, Jizo, that respond by just witnessing to it and being helpful. But anyway, this style of kanzeon is, a skillful means is to use what is at hand to respond and try things and be willing to make mistakes. So, you know, we have, in terms of climate, we have wind technology, We have solar technology. We have lots of different alternative systems to coal and gas and oil, which contribute to carbon dioxide.

[29:02]

Some of them are not so helpful. Nuclear power has proved to be pretty dangerous, it seems to me, from the evidence in Fukushima and other things. So maybe that's not a good one. But how do we look and see what's going on and try things You know, wind technology, if you drive down into Indiana, and I don't know how much this is happening in Illinois now, there's lots of these wind turbines, and that has unintended consequences too. There's a lot of birds who are killed by these things. And I think they've revised how they do, they've changed the, So I don't know so much about, I'm not an engineer or a scientist, but I think they've worked with the way the windmills are designed to minimize that. But there are unintended consequences to many different technologies.

[30:04]

How do we take care of, and maybe we have to actually use less energy, and that's probably going to happen. over the next decades, but how do we work with different tools and respond? So anyway, this is just some reflections on Kannon and how it applies to some of these problems. How do we change the hearts and minds of people to not hate people who are different? Different skin color, different ethnicity. These are big questions. How do we work with the people we know to listen to their suffering and consider and respond from possibility of hearing them in a way that maybe they can hear us too? or we can meet together.

[31:08]

So I do want to hear your responses as well. So I'll stop and ask for your comments, responses, questions about any of this. Thank you. So any reflections, please? My sister reposted this picture with some words on it on Facebook about the very same situation and it was basically just this thinly veiled racist comment, you know, message and You know, I found it so disturbing and it evokes such hatred in me.

[32:17]

You know, it's like, I really, you know, like, here I am thinking, oh, that they're hating, you know, creating this hate in the world, and I'm just like totally hating them for creating the hate. Yeah. And, and I see Yes. Thank you. That sounds so Pollyanna on some level, but it's just really not true for me today when I was listening to your talk. We don't know what to do about it, that's important.

[33:17]

I mean, it's important to acknowledge that, that we don't have solutions. Well, sometimes people do. Some people have, sometimes, you know, sitting allows us a kind of openness and capacity, and sometimes somebody gets an idea, and whoa, I can do this about that, you know, and that's great, and please do. But most of the time, we don't know what to do. And, you know, I think that's part of why people don't wanna sit Zazen, They don't know what to do about the pain in their knee or whatever, or some pain in their heart. It's difficult to actually sit and be present and be upright and face reality, whatever reality, you know. Face one's own, the nasty parts of one's own being or whatever, or of the world or, you know, it's difficult. Because we can't just turn a button and fix it all the time. So that's really important. But there's a tremendous power in just being able to be present and stay with it.

[34:24]

And this patience, this attentive patience, allows some possibilities. Yeah, thank you. Other responses, please. Yes, John. Yes. And so it's not as easy as it would seem. And I think Meditation helps us to listen to ourselves, to our bodies, and to our feelings, and sit with them. And that can help us do that more with other people, too. And one of the things that came to mind for me is that the Southern Property Law Center, the Southern Property Law Center puts out a, they do a lot of research on hate groups, and what they're up to,

[35:34]

And so they do a lot to try and change that. They work with law enforcement and so on. But they also tell the personal stories, often, of the person who's involved in the hate group so that you can see the humanity. Yes. And you can see the pain in that person's history that led them in that direction. So it's a wonderful combination, I think. Yeah, you know, one of our precepts says not to speak of the faults of others. It doesn't mean that we can't talk about situations where people are causing harm and doing bad things and causing damage in the world or to other people or to ourselves even. But the point is not to speak of it in terms of faults because that's then just doing more of the same. We can, but when we see, we're willing to see that people who are doing terrible things have also some pain or fear or sadness.

[36:44]

Racists have been trained for generations, centuries to blame somebody else for what's happening to them, and often there's economic, political manipulation that's intentionally dividing people so that they won't look at the causes of poverty. But there's always usually some, I don't know, there's some, pain or fear or sadness or loss. And then what you said at the beginning about just the difficulty of listening, I know you're a psychologist and just, there's a tremendous, and we have a number in the room, the training that goes into listening you know, empathetically.

[37:47]

I think this is one of the reasons that Buddhism and psychology are two of the, you know, that's one of the, one of the, one of the Western disciplines where it's meeting, meeting Buddhist practice. Yes, definitely. There was a study report in the New York Times a couple of weeks ago People were asked to sit quietly in a room for 10 to 15 minutes without their devices, without their headphones. Oh, my. Prior to asking them to do that, they asked them if they would prefer that or an electric, mild electric shock. And most people said, no, no, they wouldn't prefer that. But when they were left alone in the room with this device they could administer, a significant number of people preferred shocking themselves to sitting quietly and doing nothing. to help me to appreciate what it takes for all of us to sit, sit for ourselves, without distraction, even painful distraction. You know, we haven't actually made that part of the Zazen instruction or part of the rules when people come in that you cannot use your cell phones during Zazen.

[38:55]

I haven't actually witnessed anybody doing anything with their cell phones during Zazen. I don't know how many of you have your cell phone at hand, just in case you need to. But maybe that's an interesting point. Jeremy, you were going to say something. So this is something I'm constantly working with. But during your talk I noticed that I haven't seen the movie, I think it's called 12 Years a Slave? Oh yeah. I haven't seen it because I heard it was so... I highly recommend it. Yeah, it's so like... I don't know how to say, like, gruesome or... It's harsh, it's brutal, there's nothing that you don't already know, but just it really vividly portrays what slavery was. So I highly recommend that movie to everyone. Twelve Years a Slave, it was... I think it won the Best Picture Oscar. It's really powerful, powerful. It's just...

[39:56]

A very, very fine movie, 12 Years a Slave. But I'm sorry, you were saying? So I haven't seen it because of that. And I also recently, like I read a lot of climate material, and I've been kind of following the Ferguson story. But I feel like there's a point where I kind of have to stop listening to it, because if I do it too much, I really get bogged down. And I know you've spoken to this many times. So I think maybe it's just selfish that I'd like to hear your response to it. No, I think that's important. I was talking about this before Zaza with some people. I think we have to take care of ourselves. It's not, you know, the other side of not paying attention and not listening is becoming obsessed in a way that we don't hear it, actually. We just, so, you know, we have to listen to ourselves, too. So part of, essential to practice is a balance.

[41:00]

So we need to find our own, way to nourish ourselves. We talk about uprightness in sitting, so we have to find our balance in terms of leaning left or right or forward or backward. We have to be open to listening to the suffering of the world and in ourselves. We have to also appreciate, be grateful for that which we have to be grateful for. I was talking about the word recreation before with Cathy. That recreation is recreation. We have to nourish ourselves. So it's important to take a break sometimes. And we each have our own limits. And part of what Zazen does is widen our capacity, our toleration, our tolerance. So we each have a capacity to take care of, to give attention to, and take care of a certain amount of

[42:12]

We could say suffering. Suffering isn't exactly the right word, but we can take care of a certain amount of response to the way in which the world is out of balance. But we have to come back to our own balance, just to be able to be available. So it's important to also take time to to do things that you enjoy, maybe silly things, like playing with video games on your silly little cell phone. I don't know what. But, you know, balancing things, balancing your energy is important. Balancing energy, part of Zazen is balancing energy. You know, we sometimes get sleepy, we sometimes, our mind gets very excited. How do we find balance? Part of that balance is that we do pay attention to things going on in the world, and we try and respond. But our response, we can get exhausted.

[43:17]

So, you know, one of the issues that all people in helping professions deal with. And one of the issues for Sangha is people try doing too much and just getting burnt out. So how do we take care of ourselves enough so that we can continue and sustain our energy? So sustainable energy is a huge problem on all levels. How do we sustain, how do we find sustainable energy systems? You know, coal is not a sustainable energy system. I've recently, from listening to a scientist, coal is a bigger problem than oil and gas, actually, long term. in terms of its effect on carbon dioxide. But all of these fossil fuel systems are not sustainable energy systems. And for some people, some people can full-time study climate and try and deal with things.

[44:19]

As a long-time activist, I know that if you're giving yourself to go into demonstrations or whatever full-time, you can get burnt out. Or if you're in Sangha, if you're constantly trying to do things for the Sangha and you don't take care of yourself, you can get burnt out. So balancing on many levels is important. And but the point of it is to be as available as you can be, to be helpful to yourself and to others. So anyway, that's a little bit on that. It's important. Other comments, responses? Yes, David. There's one thing you talk about listening, and I think of the police doctor, and it has compassion and being compassionate. One of the things that they actually was taught at the Climate Reality Project training that I went to last year, it's Al Gore's, was that you listen to people and you find out what they're afraid of.

[45:30]

And that's what you address. You don't come in and just say, well, we've got to do this and that. of climate change and why we have to have it. Exactly. That's kind of how it's listening, yeah. So anybody else here, what are you afraid of? What are you concerned about? Put it that way. I'm really above the sixth extinction by elicit co-pair. Uh-huh. That's one of the things I'm most afraid of as well as all the other species. Yeah. It's amazing and serious and I've mentioned this before but if any of you have a chance to go to the Field Museum, there's this wonderful exhibit and Laurel is not here today but she's written

[46:54]

retired from working there full-time with Soul Associated, but anyway, they had this wonderful exhibit of the evolving planet and going through it, the evolution of the planet, and the different mass extinctions, and we're in the sixth, in the middle of the sixth, and there's a counter of the number of species that have gone extinct since, today, during, you know, and it's just, it's amazing, and yeah. And that's happening, and it's due to what human beings have done basically in the last couple hundred years since we developed all this wonderful technology, but even more in the last 50 years, in the lifetimes of some of us in this room. Yes? I think I may have mentioned this here before. Sandy Boucher, who is a practitioner, writes about her practice with her cancer. She went through cancer treatments.

[47:57]

One of the things that she started to notice that she hadn't before was when she recognized a bony self-hypnotist, someone who was kind and reached out to her and listened to her as she was going through the treatment. And she can get a priority to notice and see when that happened in her world, when people reached out to her Bodhisattva kind of way? Yeah. So just to say a little bit more about this idea of the Bodhisattvas, we have these figures that traditionally, popularly, in Asian Buddhism, they are venerated. And people actually call on them for help. And there are numbers of them in the book. I talk about the seven major ones in East Asia. They also exist as energies of beings in the world, or energies in the world. And again, they're also archetypally aspects of our own practice energy. So by looking at these different figures and the different practices they represent, we can see different aspects of our own awakening practice and helpful practice.

[49:06]

And these stories can encourage us. Any last comment, anyone? Thank you all very much for your listening.

[49:24]

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